BNET’s Brent Schlender chatted  with Microsoft founder Bill Gates about Apple’s new iPad. Bill Gates is basically unimpressed with the iPad, especially compared to how he felt about the iPhone when it was first announced in 2007.

“You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that,” he said. “So, it’s not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, ‘Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.’ It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’”

It remains to be seen how well the iPad when it comes out in a few months. Netbooks have established themselves as a nice and affordable in-between of smartphone and desktop/laptop PC’s.

As for the tablet PC’s, Bill Gates predicted in 2001 that everyone will be using one in five years. Obviously, it hasn’t happened but who knows, with the iPad and advancements in netbooks, it might finally come true.

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